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Tuesday, 2 July 2013

Warm&Stodgy

If you've never been to Newcastle or known a Geordie, you might not know what a stottie is. Although seeming as Gregg's is all over the country you probably do... But come up north and find out anyway! In the meantime all I can tell you is that a stottie will bloat you to hell and make you wish you'd never tasted it. It's that good. So a stottie is pretty high on my list of favourite breads– and so is a fab sunflower & honey loaf from tesco!

It might be partly from the food I was brought up on (not the best on reflection, but I was a happy-chubby-fussy kid) but I like things that are heavy and/or stodgy. Unfortunately. Good job I have will power! Aha..... yeah..... right.

Hitting my teens I started worrying more seriously about weight and finally did something about when I was 14/15. I lost just over a stone, put half of it back on, lost it again, lost some more, put some more back on, etc etc. It's a never ending cycle. Although I am proud to say for 2 years I have never gone anywhere near my old weight; I'm just obsessive over 5lbs that seem to flit in and out of my life (because of the bread maybe?). And yes, I know. I am silly and I know it. But I doubt I will ever stop thinking about my weight. I blame the bread.

I do, however, eat quite healthily now. Bread, or no bread. I love fruit, veg, herbal tea, do loads of exercise and detox every now and then to keep my system in check. So bread has become a bit of a problem for me. I can't justify it like I can justify potatoes. They're a vegetable! The carbs are good in small (infrequent) doses. That brings me to the question: how can I justify bread? The answer? Wholemeal. If you look at the second question down on this article by The Telegraph, you'll see why.

Instead of buying a loaf I decided to go all out there and make one. Surprisingly this was the first time I'd ever made a loaf of bread before– apart from helping my gran put all of the ingredients in her bread maker when I was little. Big moment. According to all of the rules your first loaf is always a failure. Pressure pressure pressure.

Buuuut, a few hours later, a little more worried and a lot more hungry.....

It was good.

(was being the operative word– it's gone already!)

I used this recipe from The Guardian (go to the bottom of the article). But accidentally added 500ml of water instead of 400ml, so then had to sprinkle in around 50g more of the wholemeal flower and I also used quick yeast instead of normal. Woopsie. I'm going to do it all exactly the same next time though because the loaf was perfect!

When I was making it I was so worried as the dough was seriously sticky and was getting stuck to everything and it barely rose at all (even in the oven).

But boy did it taste good. We (me mostly, well, just me really) were too impatient to wait for it to cool so had it nice and warm with loadsa butter! Just how it should be!

Now if you like your bread with as little air as possible, doorstopper-esq, warm&stodgy, make it and eat it like this! If not, seriously, don't waist your time– you'd hate it.

Someone remind me not to get on the scales tomorrow. I joke! I've been on them already...